A top aide to North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un who oversaw relations with the South has died in a traffic accident, Pyongyang’s state media said Wednesday, a loss seen as a setback for reconciliation efforts.
Kim Yang-Gon, who was a secretary of the ruling Workers’ Party, “died in a traffic accident at 6:15 am Tuesday at age 73,” the Korean Central News Agency said without giving further details.
It described the deceased as the leader’s “most trustworthy aide” and said a state funeral would be held.
Leader Kim has earned a reputation for ruthlessness after sacking previous high-ranking officials and having his uncle executed.
One South Korean analyst said there was no evidence of foul play in the death but it could not be ruled out.
“Kim Yang-Gon was becoming too close to the leader, which must have incurred great jealousy among political rivals,” Professor Yang Moo-Jin of Seoul’s University of North Korean Studies told AFP.
While announcing the members of a state funeral committee, the North indirectly confirmed the reinstatement of two other officials.
Among the 80 names on the list were Choe Ryong-Hae, a vice marshal and Kim Jong-Un’s confidante who had reportedly been sent to a farm for re-education, and another dismissed official Won Dong-Yon, a one-time deputy to Kim Yang-Gon.
The reversals of fortune, along with two similar cases earlier this year, have prompted suggestions the leader may be rolling back a purge.
In August Kim Yang-Gon took part in talks to ease tensions with South Korea over a border land mine blast blamed on the North which brought the two sides to the brink of war.
He served three generations of the Kim dynasty, which has ruled the North since its founding in 1948 with an iron fist and brooks no dissent.
KCNA hailed him as “the dearest and the most trustworthy comrade-in-arms” of Kim Jong-Un, who will preside over the state funeral on Thursday.
Source: Arab News